Valerie Harper starts work on TV movie

FILE - This May 16, 2012 file photo shows actress Valerie Harper at the Friars Club Roast of Betty White in New York. The UP cable channel said Wednesday, July 31, 2013 that Valerie Harper is filming a TV movie in Canada. The movie, titled "The Town that Came A-Courtin', is based on a novel by Ronda Rich and also stars Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft and Lucie Guest. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)

The UP cable channel said Thursday that Harper is filming a TV movie in Canada. Shooting began this week and is expected to end Aug. 11. UP said the movie, titled “The Town That Came A-Courtin’,” is expected to air in January.

The movie, described as an uplifting romance, is based on a novel by Ronda Rich and also stars Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft and Lucie Guest. Harper portrays the owner of a bed-and-breakfast who is trying to help kindle a romance between the widowed mayor of a Southern town and a successful author.

“When I learned that the remarkable Valerie Harper was interested in working, I was so excited, because that meant she was doing well,” said Barbara Fisher, programming chief at UP. “We are thrilled to have this iconic talent in our film and awed by her determination to live each day to the fullest. She is truly an inspiration.”

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Harper, the 73-year-old sitcom star of “Rhoda” in the 1970s, announced in March that she had been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer. She was told by some doctors that she had as little as three months to live.

Fisher said Harper was not making any statements about her health. Harper’s representatives had no immediate comment.

UP’s “The Town That Came A-Courtin’” will air in January, the channel said. It’s being shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.